It takes two to tango: How parents' and adolescents' personalities link to the quality of their mutual relationship

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It takes two to tango: How parents' and adolescents' personalities link to the quality of their mutual relationship

Denissen, J.J.A.; Aken, M.A.G. van; Dubas, J.S.

(2009) Developmental Psychology, volume 45, pp. 928 - 941

(Article)

Abstract

According to Belsky’s (1984) process model of parenting, both adolescents’ and parents’
personality should exert a significant impact on the quality of their mutual relationship. Using
multi-informant, symmetric data on the Big Five personality traits and relationship quality of
mothers, fathers, and two adolescent children, the current study set out to test this ... read more prediction.
Adolescents’ agreeableness and parents’ extraversion emerged as predictors of relationship
warmth, whereas parents’ openness emerged as a predictor of low restrictive control. In
addition, some gender-specific effects emerged. Overall, parents’ and adolescents’ traits
equally predicted the amount of relationship warmth, whereas adolescents’ unique personality
more strongly predicted the amount of restrictive control. The predictive power of adolescents’
personality increased with age. Personality characteristics that affected relationship quality
were partly shared between parents and their adolescent children. Findings support Belsky’s
(1984) notion that both parents’ and children’s personality predict the quality of their mutual
relationship, though the relative predictive power of children and parents depends on the type
of outcome variable and the age of the children. show less